Rather than attempting to cover all the different aspects of Soren Kierkegaard's thought, which the author suggests has been viewed too narrowly in the past solely in connection with the development of existentialist philosophy in this century, Gardiner focuses attention chiefly on those areas that were most closely related to the intellectual and cultural preoccupations of the period to which he belonged. He aims to show how Kierkegaard developed his ideas in conscious opposition to prevailing opinion, concentrating particularly on the relation of thought to existence, which Kierkegaard felt had been fundamentally misconceived by his predecessors. Gardiner has tried to trace the considerations that led him to develop his own positions concerning the status of ethics and religion, while also indicating some of the ways in which he exercised influence upon the subsequent history of ideas. The author also examines Kierkegaard's thoughts in the light of the doctrines on society that his contemporaries Marx and Feuerbach, among others, were developing. Finally he assesses how original and how important Kierkegaard's ideas were and how profoundly they have influenced modern ways of thinking.